Menino agrees to two debates
Number inadequate, Hennigan counters
After months of pressure from his rival, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that he has agreed to debate Councilor at Large Maura Hennigan twice this fall.
Menino said he has approved an hour-long prime time television ''town meeting" that will air on WGBH, Channel 2. The debate will be moderated by Emily Rooney, he said, with the candidates fielding questions from the audience. He has also agreed to a debate on WBZ radio, he said. The dates have not yet been set, he said, but will be a few days after the Sept. 27 preliminary election.
Though there is no preliminary for mayor, Menino said he considers the day after the September election the kickoff of his campaign against Hennigan.
''I'm looking forward to it," Menino said. ''I want to put forward my record over the past 12 years, how we've put the city on the right track and how we've made the schools places where people are proud to send their kids, and the jobs we've created over the past several years and the improvements in our parks. I want to talk about all the things that have made this a better city to live in."
''My opponent will also have to talk about what she's done as a city councilor for 24 years," he said. ''The record of my years in office has made the city a better place."
But Hennigan, who began pressing for debates in the spring, said she still isn't satisfied. Two aren't enough, she said.
''I absolutely will do the two," she said. ''He's obviously reacting to the pressure from the public and the media. But I'm sure the public will want more than this. There is no way to include all the important issues that face this city in two narrow forums. . . . That's not enough for people to understand the direction he or I want to take this city. Is this all he feels the people of the city deserve?"
There should be four debates at a minimum, Hennigan said. ''We need to touch the major issues: education, housing, public safety, and economic development.
''Who is he to say there will be only two?" she said, adding that she will have campaign workers contact the Menino campaign to try to expand the number.
Hennigan, who is being drastically outspent by Menino, hopes that a series of debates will give her added, free exposure and an opportunity to put Menino on the defensive.
For months Menino has ignored Hennigan and her calls for one-on-one face-offs. Yesterday he said he will not agree to more. ''That's the end," he said, referring to the two.
His campaign manager, Beth Leonard, was more conciliatory. ''If she calls us, we'll certainly talk to her," Leonard said. ''But the last word is his [Menino's]. It's up to him."
Four years ago Menino and his opponent -- Peggy Davis-Mullen, then a city councilor -- participated in one debate, a structured half-hour in which the host asked the questions. It aired on a Sunday morning, not in evening prime time.
Leonard said many of the debate details have not been worked out. It has not yet been decided, she said, whether the audience will ask all or just some of the questions. The length and format of the WBZ radio debate have not been determined. 